Immigration Conflict Theory Term Paper

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Ethnic Groups

The Hmong are an ethnic group that spans the northern parts of Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Yunnan province of China, Myanmar and Laos. There are currently 226,000 Hmong in the United States, with the greatest concentration being in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, with over 50,000 (MHS, 2009). Most of the Hmong in the United States have their roots in Laos.

During the 1970s, with the conflict in Southeast Asia, there was conflict in Laos as well, with a rising Communist movement. With the Cold War ongoing, and active conflict in Vietnam having just ended, the United States was engaged in Laos. The Hmong, an ethnic minority in that country, supported the United States in that conflict. When the Communists took over Laos, the Hmong fled, fearing retribution. Many first went to Thailand, but were granted refugee status in the United States in response to their contributions against the Communists. Most were settled in Minnesota, Wisconsin or California (Yau, 2005). Around half of the Hmong in the U.S. today are foreign born, and at this point the second-generation of U.S.-born Hmong is arriving. The latest arrivals came only in 2004, after having lived in limbo as refugees in Southeast Asia for many years, having been driven from their homes (Davey, 2004).

Within these areas, the Hmong would become the predominant Asian community. In California they settled mainly in Fresno, away from other major Asian centers like LA and San Francisco. The Hmong have remained in the places where they were originally settled, and have built up communities there. For older Hmong, transition to the U.S. has been a significant challenge (Davey, 2004) but younger generations are integrating to a higher degree.

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Women have become more prominent in leadership roles, for example, indicative of American cultural influence on Hmong society (Shah, 2011). Hmong have also become the community leaders for other, smaller Asian communities where they dominate (Shah, 2011). Power-conflict theory is interesting here because the Hmong community was basically transplanted wholesale into a handful of areas -- they were better equipped to have some power in their communities right away because of this.

They have also remained a fairly tight-knit group. With respect to multiculturalism, the Hmong have adopted American values to some extent, but as a newer immigrant group they retain many of the elements of their culture as well. They do not appear to have had major cultural impact, though they have contributed to the acceptance of multiculturalism in the upper Midwest, an area that has not necessarily been the most multicultural in the past.

Another group that has come to the United States are Samoans. Samoans typically come from American Samoa, which is a U.S. territory in Polynesia. They have the ability to live and work in the U.S., but are culturally quite foreign from other Americans. There are around 91,000 Samoans living in the U.S. There have been health problems associate with Samoans in America, including a higher incidence of obesity, and suicide (APIA HF, 2003). The Samoan migration, because they are able to freely travel to and from the U.S., has taken place gradually over the course of the past hundred years, with most Samoans settling….....

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